The present invention relates generally to a structure for paying off elongated material in a non-rotating manner, and particularly to structures for simultaneously paying off large, heavy coil packages of small diameter tubing, though the invention is not limited thereto.
There is a substantial amount of patent art directed to paying off coiled supplies of elongated products in a non-rotational manner, including coiled supplies of tubing, such as shown in the Martin U.S. Pat. No. 3,857,269. The Martin patent, however, is directed to paying off relatively large, cross sectional diameter tubing and therefore requires a long tower or cage located adjacent the supply of the tubing to guide the same to a process location in a manner that prevents knotting or kinking of tube.
In contrast to the type and size of the apparatus disclosed in the Martin patent, there are patents teaching the use of small, non-rotating, boxed units of electrical wire, such as shown in the Evans and Zerg et al. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,304,025 and 3,485,458, the boxes of wire being mounted in portable racks. such apparatus is particularly suitable for electrical contractors needing movable, ready available supplies of wire, but are wholly unsatisfactory for handling large, heavy packages of coiled, elongated product for processes needing continuous lengths of the product.
Other structures for paying off wire from non-rotating supplies thereof are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 793,688, 2,286,460, 3,091,415, 3,282,304, 3,298,631 and 3,744,734 issued, respectively, to Smith, Brown, Magna, Coleman, Richardson and Ladato et al. As will become apparent in the description of the present invention that follows the background information presented here, none of the structures disclosed in these patents provide the simplicity and economy provided by the structure that forms the subject matter of the present application.
Thus, the problem in the area of the subject invention has not been a general lack of background technology, but rather the lack of effort to develop low-cost, payoff structures that are simple and inexpensive to fabricate and yet simultaneously provide efficiencies in operation and savings in space that are attractive to manufacturers requiring large supplies of coiled, elongated products in processes needing continuous lengths of the elongated product. As can be appreciated, research and development efforts are often quite costly such that an industry, because of a shortage of capital, for example, often does not pursue such research and development efforts. The industry thus continues to function with less than desirable equipment and apparatus.
In the air conditioning industry, for example, with the changeover from copper tubing to aluminum tubing, the industry, heretofore, has generally lacked payoff apparatus that was suitable for handling large, unboxed, coil packages of the lighter weight aluminum material, the large packages providing substantial increases in productivity and savings in handling the packages. The large packages provide amounts (miles) of tubing that require less labor and less machine downtime because there is less need to stop machines and processes for replenishing supplies of tubing. Other economic advantages flow from the fact that less storage space is required for the large, unboxed packages.
A further enhancement of the payoff problem in the industry using large amounts of metal tubing has been the use of machines and processes that require the simultaneous feeding of several strands of tubing. For example, bending machines are available that can simultaneously cut and bend up to 6 and even 12 items of tubing. Payoff apparatus that can continuously simultaneously supply tubing to such machines is required, particularly in an inexpensive, efficient manner, and in a manner requiring minimum of floor space.